Labt, a studio for furniture design.
Fresh ideas are issued in small editions.

Labt is a glasshouse next to a workshop specializing in customized furniture. The glasshouse is a quiet space. The pressure of deadlines doesn't enter there.
Collaborations with designers are allowed to develop for long spans of time. Ideas are fostered to germinate, grow and take root.
What has sufficiently matured leaves the glasshouse as an open edition to be placed in our shop window. Once the product is placed on the market, new collaborations come into being for producing and distributing it.

Labt, a studio for furniture design.
Fresh ideas are issued in small editions.

This table didn't originate at the drawing board, it was taken from your memory. Didn't your grandmother have one?

. . .

But making it from inexpensive plywood adds distinction. Especially the process of turning the legs from a stack of boards produces a dramatic texture. Les Ballets C de la B commissioned a table that can easily be moved by a single person or even taken along. Together with Serge from the dance company we came up with legs that have a wooden helical thread that screws into the tabletop, reminiscent of piano legs. Finally we have removed a node from the wood and inserted a twig into the cavity, as if it shot there after all.

We wanted to make a simple, cheap table using only panel materials. We used to think of a table as 'a board on four sticks'. But in this table all components should be panels. Frank found us beautifully veneered softwood plywood from Poland. We cut it like a sheet of cotton is cut for jeans, and then assembled it. These jeans are stiff enough to stand without anyone wearing them.

by Henk Desmet & Paul Vermeulen

We wanted to make a simple, cheap table using only panel materials. We used to think of a table as 'a board on four sticks'. But in this table all components should be panels. Frank found us beautifully veneered softwood plywood from Poland. We cut it like a sheet of cotton is cut for jeans, and then assembled it. These jeans are stiff enough to stand without anyone wearing them.

by Henk Desmet & Paul Vermeulen

We wanted to make a simple, cheap table using only panel materials. We used to think of a table as 'a board on four sticks'. But in this table all components should be panels. Frank found us beautifully veneered softwood plywood from Poland. We cut it like a sheet of cotton is cut for jeans, and then assembled it. These jeans are stiff enough to stand without anyone wearing them.

by Jan & Randoald

No medium is as efficient as graphic work, because in it everything can be combined. For the printer graphic is crossover: printing on an earlier print. Take for example the trunk of a tree. First there is the veneer lathe: it reveals the interior of the tree as a pattern on a wooden sheet. Like the pages of a book these sheets are stacked together to form a board of plywood. On this book we printed a cover.

. . .

Printing on building materials has major advantages. You can use a tablecloth to reinforce the table. For Rik we made printed trophies, which stand on the mantelpiece without additional support. Or on a rack. Joist hangers have perforations. The carpenter doesn't know but the pattern qualifies as graphic work. Fold the steel braces and you can use it to support a tabletop instead of joists.

by Jan & Randoald

No medium is as efficient as graphic work, because in it everything can be combined. For the printer graphic is crossover: printing on an earlier print. Take for example the trunk of a tree. First there is the veneer lathe: it reveals the interior of the tree as a pattern on a wooden sheet. Like the pages of a book these sheets are stacked together to form a board of plywood. On this book we printed a cover.

. . .

Printing on building materials has major advantages. You can use a tablecloth to reinforce the table. For Rik we made printed trophies, which stand on the mantelpiece without additional support. Or on a rack. Joist hangers have perforations. The carpenter doesn't know but the pattern qualifies as graphic work. Fold the steel braces and you can use it to support a tabletop instead of joists.

by Jan & Randoald

No medium is as efficient as graphic work, because in it everything can be combined. For the printer graphic is crossover: printing on an earlier print. Take for example the trunk of a tree. First there is the veneer lathe: it reveals the interior of the tree as a pattern on a wooden sheet. Like the pages of a book these sheets are stacked together to form a board of plywood. On this book we printed a cover.

. . .

Printing on building materials has major advantages. You can use a tablecloth to reinforce the table. For Rik we made printed trophies, which stand on the mantelpiece without additional support. Or on a rack. Joist hangers have perforations. The carpenter doesn't know but the pattern qualifies as graphic work. Fold the steel braces and you can use it to support a tabletop instead of joists.

by Jan & Randoald

No medium is as efficient as graphic work, because in it everything can be combined. For the printer graphic is crossover: printing on an earlier print. Take for example the trunk of a tree. First there is the veneer lathe: it reveals the interior of the tree as a pattern on a wooden sheet. Like the pages of a book these sheets are stacked together to form a board of plywood. On this book we printed a cover.

. . .

Printing on building materials has major advantages. You can use a tablecloth to reinforce the table. For Rik we made printed trophies, which stand on the mantelpiece without additional support. Or on a rack. Joist hangers have perforations. The carpenter doesn't know but the pattern qualifies as graphic work. Fold the steel braces and you can use it to support a tabletop instead of joists.

by Jan & Randoald

No medium is as efficient as graphic work, because in it everything can be combined. For the printer graphic is crossover: printing on an earlier print. Take for example the trunk of a tree. First there is the veneer lathe: it reveals the interior of the tree as a pattern on a wooden sheet. Like the pages of a book these sheets are stacked together to form a board of plywood. On this book we printed a cover.

. . .

Printing on building materials has major advantages. You can use a tablecloth to reinforce the table. For Rik we made printed trophies, which stand on the mantelpiece without additional support. Or on a rack. Joist hangers have perforations. The carpenter doesn't know but the pattern qualifies as graphic work. Fold the steel braces and you can use it to support a tabletop instead of joists.

by JIJ's

Marc Supply & Anneli Lahtua

Marc Supply & Anneli Lahtua

The vmm Bank was originally designed for the waiting area in the main building of the Flemish Environment Company (FEC) in Erembodegem. Given the client, it obviously satisfied a range of strict ecological requirements, even back then. But the bench offered even greater potential. Selection for the Eco Design exhibition in Helsinki in 2012 prompted a rethink of the bench, to create a commercial product.

. . .

Right from the beginning, the designers had envisaged a folding bench. The FEC version was not quite there, but its design did take this idea into account. It was possible to make the bench foldable without altering its exterior, and so improve its transport and storage options. The further refinements were made in collaboration with LABT. It was made lighter and it had to be suitable for outdoors but the joins had to be seamless and invisible. The solution came in the form of Accoya-treated wood. This environmentally friendly treatment gives fast growing, less durable trees a quality similar to that of the tropical hardwoods. It makes the bench weather and heat resistant, but very light at the same time. The color is the result of a delicate lacquering process, which is only done once the components have been fitted together.

Stubs are simple stackable stools made of pine plywood. You can stack four stools resulting in a compact unit. The angular face bonding of the legs create a formal reference to a barrel. Due to the bonding the stool remains stable while rocking on two legs. Stubs are available in different colors. As an object in space, they create the extra seat when the unexpected visitor drops by.